Expert: Jessica - 6/12/2011

Question
I have a almost 12 year old Balinese siamese cat who has ocational digestive upsets at times and throws up his food.He is eatting the Wysong Urretic as he was prescribed that food by his vet to prevent urrinary problems.He has eatten this food most of his life and done well on it except for maybe once or twice a week he will get stomach upsets.When this happens he will stop eatting his food for many hours.I get very worried about this and give him a small amount of petromalt hair malt remedy which seems to get him back to eatting a little again.But the problem with is that it will often cause him to get diarrhea and then he tends to not want to eat again.As the stomach upsets aren,t probably caused by hairballs I was wondering what other natural products might help with his stomach upsets so I could avoid giving him the hairmalt remedy.I did start him on proviable probiotic capsles 5 days ago which seemed to be working well until he vomited a little yesterday.I then ended up giving him the pretromalt which resulted in diarrhea again.He then wouldn,t eat so I gave him cyprhepdadine the appetite stimulant and this was the first time I felt I had to do this.This did get him right back to eatting again although I do not want to have to use this drug in order to get him to eat.Do you think the probiable probiotic will make improvements in his digestion over time or do you think another probiotic supplement might be better?Also do you think he should be on the probiotic at all and do you think he should have it everyday on a continued basis or maybe just 3 or 4 times a week?He is otherwise a very healthy cat with a healthy weight but I,m just trying to avoid problems as he gets older.I also saw that there is a homeopet remedy for digestive upsets which I considered as an option or slippery elm bark might be another.I do like to avoid presciption drugs though and he hasn,t had to have much of them except for he has been on interfferon as a kitten since he had the herpes virus.That has kept him from getting any further respiratory problems and he has done well that way.Also I forgot to mention he is an inside cat only and so he does not eat grass which I know might be of help with his digestive system also.But please let me know any suggestions you might have as I don,t want to give him any supplements or medications that might make things worse.   
                 thankyou,Marcie

Answer
Hi Marcie,

The Proviable is a good probiotic, and it’s best to give every day. I recommend that you keep up with this for a couple of weeks before you decide whether it’s really helping or not.

Have you had a senior blood panel done since his vomiting has started? Since he’s vomiting at least once a week, I would recommend having his kidney and liver values checked. Especially at his age, kidney issues begin to become a real concern, and perhaps even more so with his urinary tract history. Liver problems can also cause nausea and vomiting.

But Siamese/Balinese are prone to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which can cause chronic vomiting. The cause isn’t well understood, but it seems to be linked to stress, as well as an over-reaction to bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract and to food ingredients. Probiotics such as Proviable are helpful for keeping the “bad” bacteria in check, but most cats need to be treated with Prednisone. They tolerate this very well, and they can be tapered down to the lowest effective dose.

Because there is no test for IBD, your vet may want to do an abdominal ultrasound or an endoscopy to rule out any other causes of vomiting before making the diagnosis of IBD. I personally prefer an ultrasound because they’re less invasive, and I’ve found they tend to provide better answers.

As for medications that might make his tummy feel better, my strong suit is not in homeopathy, and I would recommend Pepcid to help reduce stomach acid. Cats about 10 pounds will get half of a regular strength (10 mg) tablet.

I hope he’s feeling better soon!

Jessica